New teachers swell UFT’s ranks
Teaching fellows from JHS 217 in Queens meet up at Barclays for New Teacher Week.
Stepping confidently into their education futures are new teachers (from left): Amaris Ramos and Velika Yasay, both of JHS 118 in the Bronx, Dahlia Rubin of the Highbridge Green School in the Bronx, and McKenna Lipkin, Greg Latronica and Claire Stinson, all of MS 88 in Brooklyn.
More than 3,000 newly hired teachers braved a rainy morning on Sept. 1 to attend the kickoff to New Teacher Week. Attendees were filled with a commitment to make a positive difference in young lives and fortified by the knowledge their union will always have their back.
Teachers lined up around the block ready to file into Brooklyn’s Barclays Center for the annual Department of Education and UFT event. They were greeted by more than 100 UFT representatives, both in-service and retirees.
“We want new teachers to feel welcomed by their union on Day 1,” said UFT Vice President Karen Alford, the director of the UFT’s New Member Initiative. “That first conversation is crucial so every teacher knows they are not alone in the challenges ahead, and that’s why I love this event.”
New teachers look forward to having that support as members of the UFT.
Julia Seiber, who is starting this year as an English teacher at MS 113 in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, said she was excited to follow her mentor teacher’s advice to “sign up for the union right away,” because the union will “always have your back.”
“As a first-time teacher, my biggest concern is that I’m going to fail,” added Seiber. “So having somebody to reach out to and ask what I need to grow will make me a better teacher.”
Ashlee Williams, a new special education biology teacher at Brooklyn Lab School, a high school in Cypress Hills, is “looking forward to learning the contract in depth.”
Williams, who is starting as a teaching fellow after working as a laboratory technologist, may have an edge in that regard. She enters the profession inspired, in part, by her mother, a UFT chapter leader and early childhood teacher.
“I know the rules,” said Williams. “My mother always talks about it.”
Inside the arena, UFT President Michael Mulgrew reminded the new educators why they were assembled.
“You are in this room today because you made the decision to help children have access to a better life,” Mulgrew told them.
In addition to Mulgrew, the new educators heard from Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, as well as a teacher who had been honored as a Big Apple Award recipient and students.
The event closed with a “share fair,” where new teachers collected information from more than a dozen UFT departments, including certification and licensing, mental health support, retirement benefits, health benefits, student loan forgiveness, and parental leave. There, attendees received either a bento lunchbox or a UFT-branded Bluetooth speaker, a swag bag full of UFT-branded merchandise and — most importantly — a copy of the UFT New Member Handbook, full of information about contractual rights and benefits.
Christian Espinel, who is shifting careers from software development to teaching math at LEAD 359 in the South Bronx, is looking forward to teaching at the same school where his wife teaches kindergarten and his son is a student. More importantly, he is looking forward to showing “care” and “respect” to his students.
“I grew up in New York City, went to public school, and I think it helps me connect with the students in the South Bronx,” he said. “I look forward to being a role model to them and being authentic.”
As Seiber made her way into the arena, she reflected on a conversation she had with her own 5th-grade teacher the night before.
“He said, ‘Welcome to the best profession out there — the first year won’t be rainbows and sunshine, but stay the course,’” she recalled. “After 24 years of him being a teacher, he’s still being a teacher to me.”
